“Damn my tobacco?” echoed Mr. Valentine, quite stupefied.
“Yes. I’ve matters more important on my mind just now.”
“The deuce!” cried the old man. “What could be more important than tobacco?”
And he stood looking into the fire, muttering to himself between furious puffs.
Colden sought comfort of Miss Sally. “Was ever a woman as unreasonable as Elizabeth?” he said to her. “She’d have had me lower myself to meet that rebel vagabond as one gentleman meets another.”
But Miss Sally was not going to betray her own disappointment by showing a change from her oft-expressed opinion of the rebel captain,—particularly in the presence of Mr. Valentine. So she answered:
“You met him so once, three years ago.”
“I had a less scrupulous sense of propriety then,” replied Colden, raging inwardly.
“But, as he’s a rebel and deserter,” pursued Miss Sally, “was it not your duty as a soldier to take him, just now?”